HTC Doesn’t Pay Apple $8 For Each Smartphone?

We’ve seen companies arm themselves with as many patents as they possibly can and when one of their competitors violates a patent, you can bet that lawsuits will ensue. Apple is one such company that has taken competitors to task over patent infringements and it was generally believed that as a result of litigation, HTC was required to pay Apple somewhere between $6-$8 for every Android phone they made.

These numbers didn’t sound far fetched as Microsoft earns similar fees from their competitors as well. However, according to Chief Executive Officer Peter Chou who was responding to questions from the media, any talk about such payments is “outrageous”. The reason why is because it doesn’t give the full picture of everything that is involved. Essentially, the case that was settled was for a settlement on a global scale and it also included a licensing agreement for 10-years. Chou refused to comment on “a specific number”, but he did say that HTC was “very happy” with the outcome.

HTC is one of the first companies that Apple went after regarding mobile phone patent violations. It was back in August when HTC went on the record to say that they will not settle with the Cupertino company, but this was quickly put to rest because in September, we heard that settlement talks were indeed under way. This was then confirmed through court documents which revealed that settlement talks had taken place, but the two parties were unable to come to any mutual agreement.